Republican house district 52 nominee Larry Gonzales has resorted to lying about his opponent in order to get his campaign out of the ditch. In one single press release, Gonzales makes no less than six false or deceptive statements.

Gonzales implies that Maldonado employs a consultant in Virginia. To disprove this statement, simply look at the campaign finance reports. There are no payees or donors from the state of Virginia.

Gonzales claims that Maldonado “has ducked and run from any attempt at a public debate”. Maldonado will appear at the GAHCC forum on Oct. 5, and a second bi-partisan forum is being planned at Southwestern University.

Gonzales claims that Maldonado declined a debate at the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (GAHCC). This lie falls flat when you check the calendar and find that Maldonado has been booked for the GAHCC’s Oct. 5 forum for several weeks.

Gonzales claims that Maldonado requested questions 7 days in advance of the GAHCC forum. Maldonado campaign spokesperson Mitra Salassel said, “The only request we made was a standard inquiry as to the format of the forum.”

Gonzales claims that Maldonado represents Austin instead of Williamson County. Maldonado’s record of securing funding for critical projects in district 52 speaks for itself. Maldonado secured funding for the Renewable Energy Training Institute of Williamson County, $16 million for the Texas A&M Health Science Center in Round Rock and $350,000 for the Texas State University’s Round Rock Higher Education Center. Maldonado also secured $10 million in funding for the expansion of FM 1460. These projects directly improve the economy and quality of life in Williamson county, and represents a total change in direction from the former Republican representative from that district, Mike Krusee, whose singular focus was on converting agricultural land into toll roads.

Gonzales uses “Texas P2″ to refer to the “Texas Prosperity Project”, a Koch Industries-funded fake-grassroots organization that is part of a nationwide effort, active in 35 states, to undermine President Obama, prevent access to health care, avoid regulation of clean air and stop financial regulation. Gonzales states that Texas Prosperity Project “is comprised of business and industry”, which is true if what you mean by “business and industry” is a sampling of oil and gas companies, banks and insurance companies.

The voters in district 52 remember well what it was like to have an Austin-focused representative who carried water for Gov. Perry on his pet projects — toll roads — using district 52 as a laboratory for experimenting with selling off our public infrastructure to private corporations. We don’t want to go back to that. The voters of district 52 know why most of Gonzales’ campaign has been financed by Bob Perry. A vote for Gonzales is a vote to keep the Texas Residential Construction Commission, even though the Sunset Commission staff found the TRCC to be dysfunctional and recommended its repeal.

Thanks for the comment, and we stand corrected. As you stated, the 2008 Sunset commission staff report (PDF) recommended that the legislature “Abolish the Texas Residential Construction Commission and repeal the Texas Residential Construction Commission Act.” The final Sunset Commission report (PDF) found that “Current regulation of the residential construction industry is fundamentally flawed and does more harm than good.” However, it recommended that the Legislature take action to fix the problems. A bill addressing the Commission’s recommendations (HB2295) was introduced in the 81st legislature, but died in committee.

As a result, the TRCC has gone into limbo, unless a future legislature decides to revisit this issue. Having taken such an interest in its creation, Bob Perry’s massive political contributions are quite possibly motivated by his desire to bring the TRCC back from hiatus.The Perry investment in Larry Gonzales is particularly disconcerting for those who would prefer the TRCC not return from the grave.

[…] majority of her opponent’s money (85%) came from two places. One being the rich, extremist, GOP sugar daddy Bob Perry – which includes his wife and his PAC (TLR). The other from a state GOP PAC, […]